Chord Dave & 272

No quarter posted:

Congrats on buying the Dave...as far as why anyone would hook speakers directly to the dave,many people are doing it with success,just go to (Chord blu2 Head fi),then scroll to page 196.This guy Romaz,is a Dave/blu2 guru,he recently had Rob Watts and another guy at his house doing extensive testing with various setups,mostly driving high efficiency speakers directly from the Dave.Anything Romaz writes is considered bible over on that forum,up to you whether you believe it or not.

If its the same person, I think he purports to know all there is to know about Audirvana as well - but only from a particular anhle.

As for Dave and speakers, unless the speakers are extremely sensitive - think 105 or better still 110 dB/W horns - they will be very limited in terms of output - and unless they are full bass horns with mouths exceeding something like 16 ft² the bass could not be driven by Dave.

Attempting to push Dave to give more than about 2W, or with an impedance below maybe 8Ω may run into significant distortion. 

These guys are running Omega SUper Alincos,which do say on their website that they run off as little as 2 Watts.For bass,they are connecting JL Audio subs to the XLR outputs of the Dave,which will work at the same time as the RCAs feeding the Omegas.The Alincos are 94.5 DBS efficiency,a quick google search will show you.

DOCMARC, If you cannot organise a home demo of the DAVE, at least agree with the dealer a return and refund If things don't work out in your system at home. It is a big risk you are taking and the dealer should realise and acknowledge that.

Hi Nigel.  Yes, that shouldn't be a problem.  I've dealt with him in the past and have never had any issues.  I have a feeling, though, that I'll like it - maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part.  He has tried it with Naim gear and said it sounded great.  He has tried using the DAC with Focal Utopia headphones and also said that it sounded fine, no distortion.  One thing he didn't do was hook up the DAC directly to speakers - personally, I'd never try that either.

DocMark 

i am bringing the Dave I have back to my dealer Saturday,and plan to show him something is not right with it,he seems to think I am right.Just a bit of info for you...if you have an I-pad with the Tidal app,you can use it into the Dave using USB connection,then see/hear the benefits of Tidal through Dave...into the 272,I did this one night,and it sounded really good.

I'll give it a try.

No quarter posted:

These guys are running Omega SUper Alincos,which do say on their website that they run off as little as 2 Watts.For bass,they are connecting JL Audio subs to the XLR outputs of the Dave,which will work at the same time as the RCAs feeding the Omegas.The Alincos are 94.5 DBS efficiency,a quick google search will show you.

Yes, as indeed I noted in an earlier post. For me there is no way that the resultant 97.5dB maximim on peaks is enough - and even at that maximum into 8Ω you will note fron Dave’s spec that  distortion is getting significant (though admittedly not large compared to many speakers). Dave is intended to drive headphones or an amp, and into only 95dB/W speakers is  suitable for only for music mith limited dynamic range, otherwise relatively quiet listening or sitting very close to speakers  - though of course these limitations may suit some people.

Tonight my friend brought over his Hugo,and we tried driving my little speakers directly from it,and it was actually not bad sounding,much better than the Dave,we both concluded there is definitely something wrong with THIS Dave that I borrowed.Oh well,it is going back tomorrow. 

Actually the very time I heard Dave in California, it was with a 172 and 250.2

The mains cables were nordost.

But clearly it made the Hugo TT sounds very crude and one dimensional by comparison, the preamp of 172 was easily showing me the difference between Hugo TT and Dave

That day I learnt source comes first, not preamp first and I felt no need to every spend more money on amplifiers.

So a bare 272 with Dave will be fine. The analog section of 272 is very capable indeed.

Dave arrives in two more sleeps - I hope.  It's being sent by courier from Edmonton to Vancouver.  I can hardly wait!  I've collected some cables to try with it - an Audioquest USB cable for my iMac, an inexpensive Audioquest optical cable to hook up to my A&K SP-1000 player, and a Siltech BNC cable to run from my Core to the Dave.  I also managed to buy a 1.5m length of SL RCA-RCA cable to run from the Dave to my 272.  I'm looking forward to spending some time with everything over the Easter weekend.

My Dave arrived this morning.  I almost cancelled the rest of my day so that I could go home and play with it.  I got it set up and running within an hour or so, adding all my digital sources to it.  Right now I'm playing Tidal from the desktop app on my iMac.  It sounds just fine.  I've also put an optical cable between the Dave and my portable digital player - very nice.  I've also played files directly from my Core digital out - again, very nice.  So far it's a keeper.  I'll try headphones later tonight.

How is sp1000 as source/ dac with 272? Have you tested?

i recently sold my 272 and waiting for a pre

i don’t have any streaming source except sp1000, so I was wondering to use it as a source directly from 3,5 to rca or din

i wonder how will is sounds, the other alternative to get a dac and use sp1000 as source only, but sp1000 dac must be also good

it is good with iems 

Hi Emre - I used to have the analogue out from my SP-1000 running in a cable with a 3.5mm plug on one end, terminated with 2 RCA at the other end.  I ran it into an analogue input on my 272.  It sounded great.  The SP-1000 sounds even better running into my Dave via optical out from the DAP and then from Dave into the 272.

Then I can use it till I buy a new streamer/dac,  naim or Dave 2 I need a year for new expensive stuff

Thanks

Glad to hear you got the Dave hooked up DOCMARK,at first it might not seem like much,but then suddenly you realize just how fantastic a source it is.I am real curious on your thoughts with headphones,since the unit I had disappointed me,I am sure there was a problem with it.

NQ - a question for you.  I'm streaming Spotify from my iMac to the Dave via USB.  As far as I know, Spotify streams at only 320kbs.  The info screen on the Dave shows that the input to the Dave is USB, and that the sampling frequency is 44.1 kHz.  Does this mean that Dave is automatically upsampling?

docmark posted:

NQ - a question for you.  I'm streaming Spotify from my iMac to the Dave via USB.  As far as I know, Spotify streams at only 320kbs.  The info screen on the Dave shows that the input to the Dave is USB, and that the sampling frequency is 44.1 kHz.  Does this mean that Dave is automatically upsampling?

A music file, such as .wav or .flac, at whatever resolution, must be rendered into a digital music stream, which is what is fed to the DAC. Dave in this case reports what is fed to it this way. I assume much the same is happening with Spotify receiving a file streamed over the internet at 320kpbs, the computer rendering it into a digital music stream to send to the DAC, in this case the iMac converting it to 44.1KHz.

docmark posted:

NQ - a question for you.  I'm streaming Spotify from my iMac to the Dave via USB.  As far as I know, Spotify streams at only 320kbs.  The info screen on the Dave shows that the input to the Dave is USB, and that the sampling frequency is 44.1 kHz.  Does this mean that Dave is automatically upsampling?

Sorry for the late reply,was busy all weekend...but I think IB sort of answered your question.I do not use Spotify myself,and have let my Tidal subscription run out,sick of renting music,when I have plenty on the Core,and internet radio sounds really good on my system.I am not sure the Dave even shows 320KBs on the screen,I never saw it,so maybe it just shows the smallest available value.The long time Dave owners would know more than me about it.How are you liking it so far anyway?I thought it was better than the DAC in the 272,but it was not a significant enough upgrade for me to bother with it...for the price.Then again,I use an XPS,and you don’t,so in your case,the upgrade might be more.

So your streaming Spotify at 16/44 into a £7,000 dac? Of course source first but that starts with the medium be it vinyl, cd or stream. 

That's the DAC I happen to have right now.  It's going to be around in my system for a while as it grows, and I will use it for all of my digital sources..  Yes, I'm aware of the irony of listening to Spotify through it, but I've got to admit it sounds pretty good.  Music streaming from my server into the DAC is far better.

Bob the Builder posted:

So your streaming Spotify at 16/44 into a £7,000 dac? Of course source first but that starts with the medium be it vinyl, cd or stream. 

What’s wrong with 16/44? That’s what CD is, and in many cases is the highest resolution available. 

And the DAC is a primary component in getting the best out of a digital source, so Dave will make the CD sound as good as it can be - better than vinyl in my opinion.